New Beginnings
by MissRoseM
Summary: After four years, Rose returns to Court after having spent her time in Moscow, where she first had a charge, but then becomes guardian leader of all of Russia. She comes back to Court, and finds that her friends have changed. She doesn't come back alone...
1. Prologue

It's been four years since I've left Court, after being declared innocent. I broke up with Adrian, and said goodbye to Lissa and Dimitri. However, Christian and Lissa had not made up, so I hadn't said goodbye to Christian. I'd been offered a job as a guardian in Russia, in Moscow, so I took it. Of course, I worked as a guardian for a Zeklos lord until I got offered the job that I have now, which is basically the equivalent of what Hans does at Court, but for the whole of Russia. I have my own office in Moscow and, basically, I'm in charge of the whole Moroi and guardian pairings of Russia.

My goodbye with Lissa and Dimitri wasn't the most joyful of goodbyes; I had left without saying what I felt, just that I had gotten an assignment abroad. My last words were, "I hope you're happy, and keep her safe. I've decided to take this job because, not only will it be good for me, but I think that it's time that we said goodbye. We can't go on like this; it'll only end badly. So my final words to you are have a nice life, and may we meet again someday, if given the change."

I still had the bond, but I only checked in about once a week. Eddie and Dimitri had become Lissa's two main guardians, and she remained close friends with Adrian as well. He had been assigned, of all people, Viktoria as a guardian. That I'd like to see...

I live in an apartment in the center of Moscow, and it's been mine for the past two years. For the first two years, I was also in Moscow, but I lived with my assigned charge, who was called Brandon Zeklos; a really nice guy. I left him because I was offered the job of guardian in charge of the whole of the country. It wasn't exactly something that I could reject, it was a big honor to be offered this job.

While I was the one in charge, that didn't mean that there were people in the main office on the Red Square that didn't respect me. First of all, I was a woman, meaning that I was less respected that someone say like, Hans. Add that to the fact that I was American, and I wasn't everyone's favorite. For the first year, it was hard, but I was finally able to be accepted, more or less, about one year into my job.

What helped was the fact that my best friend, who I had met when I first started my job. His name was Ethan Voda, a royal lord. He was, like me, 22 years old and had grown up in Scotland. We quickly became best friends, going to the point of getting the same tattoo when we turned 21. He lived in the same street as me, but we hung out practically every day, and we worked together. He didn't have a guardian, because he was able to defend himself. Well, that and the fact that I'm practically the one that helped him get as good as he is at combat.

* * *

Even though I don't regret leaving, there are still some aspects of home that I regret. For example, I wouldn't have left things the way that they are with Dimitri and Lissa. I mean, growing up, Lissa was my best friend. But, what's done is done and I can't take back what I did.

Time to face the music.


	2. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

* * *

I was on the plane back to Court with Ethan. We were almost there, and it had been a long flight from Moscow. We were going back for an event, Hans had invited me and he wanted me to come, since I was his equal in Russia. So, it was only fair that he invite me as well. This was an important event at Court, only the royals and high-up dhampirs would be attending.

When we landed, we gathered our luggage and headed to housing.

"Come on, it's this way," I told Ethan. I, of course, remembered the way. When we got there, we got assigned two rooms next to each other.

"Rose, I can see that you aren't very happy to be back. Are you sure that you want to do this?" Ethan asked me, concern in his eyes. He knew what had happened, because I had told him the whole story. Being my best friend, he was only looking out for me.

"Ethan, this is nothing that I can't handle. I'll be fine, don't worry about me," I told him, "Although we should start getting ready because the event it tonight. I'll see you in an hour down at the reception."

"Ok, see you then."

We both headed into our rooms and got ready. As the dhampir boss of Russia, I didn't have to wear a guardian outfit. Instead, I quickly showered and put on a red dress. It was very pretty and came up to the knees, but good for a royal event.

* * *

An hour later I met up with Ethan down in the reception, he was wearing a nice tuxedo.

"Happy, cuz?" he asked me in his Scottish accent. Since he was Scottish and my mom was as well, he frequently called me cuz.

We got to the ballroom and entered. _Well, here goes nothing. _I was pretty sure that Lissa and all of the ex-friends would be attending, NOT something that I was looking forward to. So, as soon as we entered, I took Ethan's arm and directed him towards the table where we would be having dinner, which would start in a few minutes. Ethan, being a Voda, sometimes acted like a royal, especially around the other royals, but he did it on purpose, just for the fun of it. The table that we had been assigned to held a few seats, and in one of them was Wade Voda, someone I had known back at the Academy. _Great, _I thought. He wasn't my favorite person on earth, he had blamed me for destruction in his room about 7 years ago. _Wow...7 years. It's been so long since I've been here._ Sitting down, I caught a glimpse of Christian in the distance.  
He saw me and made his way towards me.

Giving me a hug, he told me, "Wow Rose, it's been a year since I've seen you. And you have not changed one bit." Christian came to visit me a few times when I was in Moscow, and we had actually became friends. "Ethan, hey, what's up?"  
"Hey Christian, nice to see you. I've been good, how bout you? Well, one can only be good while being best friend with. There's an advantage to having your best friend be in charge of assignments in the biggest country in the world," Ethan said, and then he winked at me. He wasn't trying to flirt with me, because our friendship was purely platonic. However, some people sometimes got the wrong impression.

So, Christian sat down and started chatting with us about what had been going on for the past year. Christian, much to Tasha's dismay, had not gone to college but traveled the world instead. He spent six months with me in Russia, and we had gotten pretty close. He had come in the summer, it is Russia after all, and we had gone on a road trip for 2 months through the country. It was lots of fun and I would cherish those memories. For the past year he had been in Australia and then Japan. He was going to be spending a two week vacation at Court, while we were here. Tasha had wanted to see him.

"So...where's Tasha? I mean, have you seen her since you got here?" I asked Christian.  
"If you mean, have you seen THEM, no I haven't." Christian told me, with a bit of resentment in his voice. Lissa and Adrian had remained close to Tasha, because Dimitri was Lissa's guardian and he had always been good friends. From what I heard, Adrian and Dimitri had become good friends too. I looked back at this with a bit of regret, but I couldn't come back on the past.

Christian, probably sensing what I was thinking about, gave me a sympathetic look and say, "Hey Rose, we can totally ignore them tonight and set the night on fire." He said this with a smirk.

So, we set down for dinner and then it was time to mingle. _Oh, how I love this part of the dinner. _In Moscow, I had to attend many of these meetings and they were always a bore for me. What they sometimes didn't realize was that I was 22, not 55. So we walked around the room and talked to people. By we, I meant me and Ethan. He was my rock throughout all of this, my best friend. We were sort of a package deal. When the time came...I had to go say hi to Tasha. Unfortunately for me, she was with Dimitri, Viktoria, Adrian, and...Lissa. Oh, great. Just my night. Christian was giving me this look that said, _Kill me now._ He didn't like them any more than I did after all that had happened.

So, Ethan and I made our way other there and, when I got there, I said, "Hi Tasha. Nice to see you." Obviously not sensing the coldness in my words, she hugged me.

"Rose, it's been too long. How are you? I've heard so many stories about you, how you're doing really well in Russia. And who is this?" She said, while looking at Ethan.

"Ethan Voda," he said, while holding out his hand for her to shake it. She shook his hand and said that it was nice to him. I think it's time to say that Ethan had a bad reputation. It was probably worse than Adrian's reputation. Oh well...they didn't have to listen to what everyone said.

The others had been staring at us in silence, not daring to say a word. Hesitant, I said, "Hello. It's...been a while." This earned me a snort from Christian and weird looks from everyone else. I stepped forward and hugged Eddie, who was Lissa's other guardian. He seemed happy to see me; after all, we had been pretty good friends back in the day.

Lissa stepped forward and hugged me, but she didn't say anything. I followed suit and hugged Adrian, but I didn't dare approach the Belikovs. Viktoria probably hated me and Dimitri's love for me had "faded." No way was I going to hug them and pretend to be happy to see me.

"Well...I'm pretty tired, from the plane and all. I think I'm going to head back to my room," I told everyone, trying to find a way out of this awkward silence.

Christian, being Christian, said, "Sure sis. I mean, we all know how much you love awkward silence. Remember last year? You didn't know what to say that you would rather have hung out with your Strigoi-lover friends," giving me a wink as he said this. My Strigoi'-loving friends were hunters I had met four years ago, and they were..."pro-Strigoi." They were a different story for a different time. I gave him a glare and said, "Вы не были последними, чтобы пообщаться с ними." No one here really knew how to speak Russian and I told him this in a really hushed tone. He had only wanted to hang out with them because he'd had a crush on Svetlana. That...didn't work out very well.

"It was..nice seeing you. I'm sure that I'll see you guys sometime around before I leave. Good night." I told them, no trace of friendliness in my tone. "Tasha, nice seeing you too. Christian, come to my room tomorrow, we have to do something. After all, not gonna leave me with him all day," meaning Ethan. Ethan faked being hurt and said his goodbyes before leaving to go outside. He was probably going to smoke.

"I'll call you tomorrow morning and we'll go get breakfast. Night sis," Christian told me before hugging me and going back to the table.

I stared at those that were still there and said, "well...Um...bye everyone." I gave them a little wave and turned around.

Meeting Ethan outside, we walked back to housing together and I went to sleep. _What a day..._I thought, _Can't wait to get back home in Moscow. _


	3. Chapter 2

**AN: I'm so so sorry that I haven't updated in a few months. I know that some of you were really looking forward to me continuing the story ,and I am! I've just been very busy lately. I hope you enjoy it :) **

After returning to my room, I went to bed and fell asleep almost immediately. It was strange seeing all of them tonight, and what was stranger was that they didn't really speak to me, except for Tasha. They were exceptionally silent...

When I woke up, I saw that it was 8am, vampire schedule. Fortunately, I hadn't been hit by the time difference too much, since there were 8 hours between Court and Moscow. I reached for my phone and saw that Christian had sent me a text message that said _Come to that café we used to go to, the one next to the ice cream place. Bring Ethan with you. _Leave it to Christian to be brief. So, I got out of bed and got dressed, all the while calling Ethan.

"Get up, we're going to meet Christian," I told him.

"Rose...you just woke me up."

"Well get up I wanna get the good food before the other people get it," I said, hanging up.

When I was dressed, I went out of my room and knocked on the door next to mine. While he had a pretense of being asleep, it seemed that Ethan had been quick in dressing and brushing his hair. We made our way out of the building and towards the cafe. Ethan had been to Court numerous times, but tended to avoid it due to the looks people gave him, due to his reputation. His parents were strict and he would rather just avoid them. He'd gone to a school in South Carolina, but he had spent a year in the school in Glasgow, the one my mother had attended. After that, he moved to Moscow because he'd always been attracted to the Russian culture. What people did not know, was that he could fight against Strigoi just as well as I could, which had shocked me when I'd met him. Due to our similar snarky attitude, we'd quickly become good friends, and the same had happened when Christian had come to Russia.

When we reached the café, I saw Christian sitting at a table, looking like his dog had just died. He was not alone at the table, it seems that between the time he sent me a message and the time we got here, Tasha and my friends from St. Vlad's had come to the cafe and decided to sit with him. So I went to the counter and ordered a hot chocolate for me, and a coffee for Ethan. I still hated coffee just as much as during my high school years. I also grabbed some pastries, since I was beyond hungry. The fancy royal dinners didn't feed us, but they were decorative.

I went to the table, Ethan trailing behind me looking very sarcastic. He only knew Christian, but I'd told him about the others and what had happened.

"Hey guys, Christian didn't tell me you would be here," I said, not appearing aggressive but definitely not friendly either.

"Rose, it's just been a long time and I think we all want to catch up with you," said my best friend (could I call her that anymore?). I'd taken up my job as Brandon's charge when she had sided with Dimitri. I still resented her for it, but it was understandable that she choose his side. I still hate her (somewhat) for it because she'd chosen his side, and not mine.

I looked at the others at the table and noticed that only Tasha, Adrian, Dimitri, and Viktoria were present, apart from Christian of course. My only friend, Eddie, wasn't here. I sighed at started eating my croissant.

It was only then that I realized that I hadn't replied to Lissa, and everyone was giving me odd looks. It was kinda to be expected...I mean, I'd broken up with Adrian before I left, Tasha didn't know why I hated her, Dimitri didn't care for me anymore (although he was giving me a curious glance), and Viktoria probably hated me for coming between her and Rolan four years ago in Russia.

So I glanced at all of them, gave them my best Rose Hathaway smile, and said, "Well of course you do. But what would you like to know, I mean it's kind of strange. All of you hated me four years ago and now you're all sitting here looking at me like I'm some sort of lab rat. It's kind of strange, don't you think? What do you think, Ethan?"

Ethan had been quiet watching this whole exchange, but said, "Look, you may be my best friend but I don't think that this is any of my business right now." He gave everyone a smile and just downed his coffee. Only Christian gave me a snide glance before laughing to himself. I gave him an evil glare in return.

It was Adrian who spoke next.

"Well of course we'd love to hear about you, you're our friend. Also, you should know that I don't hate you, no one could hate Rose Hathaway. But it seems like I've been replaced by a Voda" He said this while winking, looking at Ethan. Adrian never changes...although he did seem slightly jealous of Ethan. The others at the table laughed, seeing that the tension had eased. I gave Adrian a grateful smile.

Ethan laughed, giving me a sly glance, "Oh yeah, Vodas are definitely better than Ivashkovs. Right Rose?"

I smiled, but didn't reply to him, because I loved them both.

"Would you like to come to dinner tonight?" The question was aimed at both me and Ethan, and it was Tasha who had asked. "It'll be all of us sitting at the table, but I'd like to catch up with Christian too. Since it seems like you've become closer, I think he'd like for you to come, right Christian?"

Christian replied but I was ignoring what he said, because it was suspicious that Lissa, Dimitri, and Viktoria had remained silent for so long. I look at the with a question, while evil, glance, but they just averted their gazes.

I was thinking, but all of a sudden Ethan nudged me. I looked at him and he pointed to Christian.

"Rose, wanna come with me to get some more food? I need to go get these Turkish delights at the supermarket, and it's right over there," Christian said, pointing two streets behind me.

I gave the rest of my friends at the table a flippant look and said yes to Christian.

"You, stay here and talk to my friends. I shall be back later," I told Ethan, looking smug that he was stuck with the people that I wanted to talk to the least.

As we were walking away, I slung my arm over Christian's shoulder and told him, "Aren't I enough of a Turkish delight? Why do you need to go to the Oriental food market? Also, why in the world do you need to buy Turkish delight? You hate that stuff." When he'd been dating Svetlana, she'd loved these candies, but he'd thrown his out the window...and it had landed on someone's head. Not something that he liked to talk about, because Svet had broken up with him 4 months after they started dating.

Christian started laughing uncontrollably after we were 15 feet from the table, and everyone at our table gave us curious glances...well almost. I felt a surge of jealousy through the bond. _Hmm...so she still likes him. _

I looked very proud of my joke, and we made out way towards the store. I noticed that while Christian had laughed, he hadn't responded to my question.

When we got back to the table, I noticed that they were all in a deep discussion. As Christian heard what they were talking about, he groaned. I, on the other hand, sat down and said, "You can't do this to everyone." I gave a look at Lissa, Tasha, Dimitri, Adrian, and Viktoria, and continued, "ever since he moved to Russia, he's been obsessed with all things Russian. His room is full of books in Russian history, and you don't even want to know how many girls he's dated since we've been there. I don't know how he dates them, because all he seems to talk about with them is their country. Of course, they love talking about their country since they're all obsessed with Russia. I've actually counted how many girls you've-" I stopped talking once I saw the look Ethan gave me. "Anyways...Dimitri and Viktoria, I recommend you not sit next to him at dinner tonight, unless you want to hear the whole story about Rasputin, because that's what he usually talks about to Russian people he just meets."

Thankfully, they laughed, and Dimitri said, "Thanks for the advice, duly noted."

Regardless of what I'd just said, Ethan continued talking about...were they talking about the Russian Revolution? Good god, he should spend more time with Adrian. So I reached across the table and took Christian's Turkish Delights, and started eating one. When he saw that I'd opened the package, he said, "No don't eat those!" I grinned once I saw his reaction. Of course. They were for Svet. He'd been trying to win her back for months now, but nothing was working. It was only in America that they sold these types of candies, and she hated coming to America.

I gave him a smug glance and said, "I knew it." He just gave me this evil look, while everyone else looked confused.

I just laughed and said, "If he wants to tell you, he will. But I don't think he will. I don't think he wants you guys to know. And I'm gonna shut up now because you're probably too curious and Christian will kill me in my sleep. Anyways I've got to go to a meeting with Hans in...3 minutes and I'm late so I've got to run. Ethan, what are you doing today? I'll probably be with him til 3pm."

"I don't know I think I'll go get a tattoo, go skydiving, or maybe throw a party in my tiny room. What do you think I'll be doing today, Rose?" he said this in a very sarcastic manner.

"Well you already have a tattoo and we did go skydiving when we went on a road trip. And god knows how many parties you've thrown in your house, and in mine as well. with NO permission. So no, I don't know what you'll be doing today, and as long as you don't set anyone on fire or kill them you're good. See you later," I said, grabbing the remainder of my food and running to the guardian offices.

Through the bond I saw that Adrian and Dimitri were in some sort of deep discussion, and Viktoria was chatting with Lissa. Ethan was talking with Christian, who wanted to spend time with him, apparently.

_Well this is going to be an interesting day..._


End file.
